At long last, a fine weather day in Texas and a trip to Galveston

Finally, we enjoyed a really good weather day on Wednesday. With the improved weather we headed for a day in Galveston, which is about 30 miles south of here.

Joan, Diane and Denny on the Galveston Seawall

Sometimes I know people get tired of me acting like the cruise director so I tried to let everyone get up and out at their own pace today. We departed the trailer about 11 a.m. for the trip to Galveston.

By the time we arrived in Galveston, the sun was shining and the temperatures were in the mid-70s. The ladies expressed a desire to tour two historic homes in Galveston, the Moody Home and the Bishop’s Palace. Denny and I opted to pass up the home tours for a tour of the Lone Star Flight Museum.

As it turned out we were both more than satisfied with our choices. The flight museum has a small, but nice collection of vintage aircraft, many of which still fly on the weekends with passengers, for a pretty high cost.

DC-3 still flies too

Unfortunately one of the aircraft that we could see in the background was a PBY (Catalina) and one of only a few they were unable to fly out during Hurricane Ike in 2008. One of the volunteers told us that they had not been able to restore it yet and that it might be a long time before they would be able to do so.

The PBY is a plane that my stepfather flew during World War II so our family has a particular affection for the airplane.

(See below for more aircraft and home photos from our separate tours)

Moody Mansion

Joan and Diane really enjoyed both tours, but were particularly impressed with Clair, the docent at the Moody House. Clair apparently had done a lot of research on the home and the area and turned a one hour home tour into a two-hour adventure, one that Denny and I were not sorry we missed.

Clair also explained to Diane and Joan how after the major hurricane in 1900 all the remaining buildings were raised 8-feet along with the rest of the island using huge jacks.

One of the men coming out of the tour with his wife was not happy and told Denny and I: “Way too long a tour.” But Joan and Diane appreciated all the extra information they received during the tour and moved on just in time to catch the 3 p.m. tour at the Bishop’s Palace.

The large home was used by the Roman Catholic Bishop for a time.  Although they enjoyed the tour, the docent there was not as animated or interesting as Clair.

Tahoe on the ferry

Joan and Diane on the ferry

Denny and I drove over to see Seawolf Park, the home to a World War II destroyer escort and a World War II submarine, but by the time we arrived we discovered that it would cost us $16 to tour the two ships (actually a submarine is a boat) and we only had 40 minutes until we had to leave and pick up the girls, so we decided to forego the tour and check out the Highway 87 ferry and see if we could use it after we picked up the girls.

The free ferry is used to connect two parts of Texas Highway 87 and the crossing takes 18 minutes. In season I can only imagine how long the line is for the ferry, but yesterday there was no wait in either direction so after picking up Joan and Diane we headed back to the ferry.

The reason for the trip was to visit an Audubon Park on the Bolivar Peninsula and look for birds. We found a few ducks and egrets and pretty much turned around and caught the next ferry back to Galveston.

On the trip over we got out of the car and sat up on deck to view the trip, but on the way back we remained in the car for the short voyage. One of my favorite photos was a picture of a good ‘ol boy with his pick up and ill-fitting camper shell.

Denny and Jim on the ferry

Back on Galveston we did a drive-by of “The Strand” the historic downtown area of the island and one that Joan and I will likely return to next week for a closer look. But with time drawing near for the end of the visit of our family/friends we at least wanted them to be able to see what the downtown district looked like.

After the quick drive by we headed to dinner at Gaido’s (actually Casey’s, but they are essentially the same place with the same owners – one is fancy and the other is casual so we did casual).

Casey (Gaido's) gulf front restaurant

We had a wonderful seafood meal and enjoyed each other’s company. After dinner we noticed the “marine layer” (or as I prefer to call it – FOG) rolling in off the gulf and we headed home about 7:30 p.m.

It was a great day all the way around. As we headed home I remembered seeing a Dairy Queen on Highway 517 when we came in to San Leon and I “accidentally” headed that way home and talked (it wasn’t too hard) the rest of the crew into stopping for a little treat.